Japan

I have always, since being a teenager, been very hung up by Japan in general. It always seemed to me like such an amazing country with an interesting culture and great food. In addition, I was always fascinated by the high speed train system in Japan; the Shinkansen. According to Wikipedia, Japan was the first country in the world to build a dedicated high speed train rail. I have been lucky enough to visit Japan, and I even got to travel from Tokyo to Osaka on the Shinkansen. It is amazing, during the peak hours, the line between Tokyo and Osaka have up to 13 departures per hour (16 cars and a capacity of 1332 seats per departure), and transports some 150 million passengers per year.

Transportation is this weeks Travel theme at the Where’s my Backpack blog, and the below is the Shinkansen I got to ride from Tokyo to Osaka. A great experience!

Being from Scandinavia and doing business with any North East Asian company will certainly make you notice some cultural differences. One of the moments I remember was the first time visiting a customer in Imabari, Shikoku Island, Japan. Here I was asked to take off my shoes and wear the office slippers. I guess this may happen from time to time in Japan, but this, the first time, was just “interesting” to me.